In recent years, apps aimed towards promoting health and fitness have become increasingly popular. It is evident by research that health and fitness apps can have positive effects such as increased physical activity among its users. However, as health and fitness app downloads continue to increase, physical activity does not follow the same trend. Physical inactivity is a widespread issue today as it affects public health and leads to substantial costs for healthcare and society. This indicates a need for a deeper understanding in how health and fitness apps can be part of the solution for the issue of physical inactivity. The aim of this paper is to investigate which digital app functions in health and fitness apps are most effective in promoting motivation for physical activity, which functions support users’ congenital psychological needs for motivation as well as which congenital needs users think are the most important to fulfill for the purpose of promoting motivation for physical activity. The study is based on a quantitative approach and presents user experiences collected with an online survey spread via social media platforms. The survey answers have been reviewed and examined in relation to two theoretical frameworks: Self-Determination Theory and the taxonomy of app features based on Self-Determination Theory. Results of the study show users find competence to be the most prioritized inherent need for a health and fitness app to fulfill, closely followed by autonomy. Competence's high ranking among users aligns well with the three highest rated app functions which fall under the competence category. The highest rated function for motivation for physical activity was activity logging. Regarding which functions support which congenital needs, users found autonomy to be best supported by function 1: goal setting and function 6: summaries which contradicts earlier research that categorizes summaries as a function that supports the competence need. However, the results of this study also place summaries as the function which best supports the competence need. For the relatedness need the results of our web survey shows many respondents find that none of the included functions of this study support the need for relatedness.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-195451 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Seyoum, Natnael, Aspehult, Nelly, Cato, Simone |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Institutionen för informatik |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | Informatik Student Paper Bachelor (INFSPB) ; 2022.19 |
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